Worship Of The Messiah In The Millennial Temple Through The Animal Sacrifices
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday June 6, 2010
The Day of the Lord: Worship Of The Messiah In The Millennial Temple Through The Animal Sacrifices
Lesson # 38
Please turn in your Bibles to Ezekiel 43:1.
This morning we will continue with our “Day of the Lord” series and in particular our study of the millennial reign of Christ, which helps to compose this prophetic period of history.
Last month, we studied that the millennial reign will be marked by the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ (Is. 12:1-6; 25:1-26:19; 56:7; 61:10-11; 66:23; Jer. 33:11, 18, 21-22; Ezek. 20:40-41; 40:1-46:24; Zech. 6:12-15; 8:20-23; 14:16-21).
Isaiah 66:23, “And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the Lord.”
This morning we will note that worship of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ will manifest itself in the millennial temple through animal sacrifices (Ezekiel 40-48).
Jerusalem will become the center of the worship of the millennial age (Jeremiah 30:16-21; 31:6, 23; Joel 3:17; Zechariah 8:8, 20-23).
There will be a temple in Jerusalem, which will be the center of this worship of Jesus Christ during His millennial reign (Ezekiel 40-48).
Ezekiel 43:1, “Then he (an angel) led me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. 3 And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. 4 And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. 5 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. 6 Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a man was standing beside me. 7 He said to me, ‘Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die. 8 By setting their threshold by My threshold and their door post beside My door post, with only the wall between Me and them. And they have defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. So I have consumed them in My anger. 9 Now let them put away their harlotry and the corpses of their kings far from Me; and I will dwell among them forever. 10 As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the plan. 11 If they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exits, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes, and all its laws. And write it in their sight, so that they may observe its whole design and all its statutes and do them. 12 This is the law of the house: its entire area on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.”
During the millennial reign of Christ, the Levitical blood animal sacrifices will be reinstituted and will be related to the worship of the Messiah (See Isaiah 56:7; 66:20-23; Jeremiah 33:18; Zechariah 14:16-21; Malachi 3:3-4; Ezekiel 45:18-25).
Ezekiel 45:18, “‘Thus says the Lord God, ‘In the first month, on the first of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary. 19 The priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the door posts of the house, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on the posts of the gate of the inner court. 20 Thus you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who goes astray or is naive; so you shall make atonement for the house. 21 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.’”
“The prince” is King David as indicated by Ezekiel 34:24; 37:24-25.
Ezekiel 45:23-25, “‘During the seven days of the feast he shall provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams without blemish on every day of the seven days, and a male goat daily for a sin offering. 24 He shall provide as a grain offering an ephah with a bull, an ephah with a ram and a hin of oil with an ephah. 25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he shall provide like this, seven days for the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering and the oil.’”
There are several reasons for the existence of these sacrifices.
The first is that the blood animal sacrifices will “memorialize” the work of Christ on the cross just as the Lord’s Supper was designed to do so.
Just as the Lord’s Supper today memorializes the death of Christ without diminishing the complete sufficiency of His death, so the animal sacrifices during the millennial reign of Christ will be offered without diminishing the finished work of Christ on the cross.
There is yet another purpose for the blood animal sacrifices during the millennial reign of Christ, which is that they are related to solving the problem of ceremonial uncleanness (Ezekiel 43:20, 26; 45:15, 17, 20).
To be “clean” meant that one was qualified to worship the Lord while to be “unclean” implied the opposite.
The blood animal sacrifices offered during the millennial reign of Christ like the Levitical sacrifices offered by the citizens of Israel during the dispensation of Israel will solve the problem of ceremonial uncleanness enabling a person when they became impure to be restored to the presence of the Lord.
In Old Testament Israel, the Lord was in the presence of the Israelites in the Tabernacle and the Temple.
Now, an Israelite could become ceremonially unclean or impure by eating unclean animals (Leviticus 11), childbirth (Leviticus 12), swellings and eruptions (Leviticus 13-14), sexual misdeeds (Leviticus 18) or by touching a corpse (Leviticus 21).
The solution the Lord provided someone ceremonially unclean or impure were the blood animal sacrifices offered by the Levitical priests.
The offering of these sacrifices made the impure Israelite ceremonially clean again and thus enabled him or her to continue to reside in the presence of the Lord.
This too will be the purpose for the blood animal sacrifices during the millennial reign of Christ in that these sacrifices like the sacrifices in Old Testament Israel will make an impure person clean so that they can continue to live in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the blood animal sacrifices of the Old Testament and in the millennial reign of Christ protect the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ who is holy.
Those who are in resurrection bodies during the millennial reign of Christ such as church age believers and Old Testament saints will not offer the blood animal sacrifices to make them ceremonially clean since they will already be clean.
However, those individuals during the millennium who have not yet received their resurrection bodies, namely those believers who survive the tribulation and are still alive on the earth at the time of Christ’s Second Advent will have to offer these animal sacrifices to be ceremonially clean and their offspring will have to as well.
Now we must remember that the purpose of the blood animal sacrifices in Old Testament Israel and during the millennial reign of Christ was not to provide eternal salvation since they can never cleanse the conscience of the sinner.
Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross is superior to these blood animal sacrifices in that our Lord’s death cleanses the sinner’s conscience and provides eternal salvation for the sinner whereas the blood animal sacrifices only dealt with ceremonial uncleanness and could never provide eternal salvation.
Hebrews 10:4, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Hebrews 10:11, “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.”
Another purpose for the blood animal sacrifices during the millennium is that they serve to point to Christ’s superior sacrifice on the cross and will serve as a continual message to the unsaved during the millennium of their need for a Savior.
Lastly, the animal sacrifices during the millennium will enable the regenerate person to demonstrate outwardly his or her love for and obedience to the Lord (Isaiah 56:6-7).
Ezekiel 46:1-18 records King David, who will be in a resurrection body, as offering sacrifices during the millennium as part of his worship of the Lord.
He will not be offering sacrifices to become ceremonially clean since he will be in a resurrection body, rather he will offer sacrifices to demonstrate outwardly his love and obedience to the Lord.
Ezekiel 46:1, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘The gate of the inner court facing east shall be shut the six working days; but it shall be opened on the sabbath day and opened on the day of the new moon. 2 The prince shall enter by way of the porch of the gate from outside and stand by the post of the gate. Then the priests shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate and then go out; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening. 3 The people of the land shall also worship at the doorway of that gate before the Lord on the sabbaths and on the new moons. 4 The burnt offering which the prince shall offer to the Lord on the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. 5 And the grain offering shall be an ephah with the ram, and the grain offering with the lambs as much as he is able to give, and a hin of oil with an ephah. 6 On the day of the new moon he shall offer a young bull without blemish, also six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. 7 And he shall provide a grain offering, an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he is able, and a hin of oil with an ephah. 8 When the prince enters, he shall go in by way of the porch of the gate and go out by the same way. 9 But when the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go out by way of the south gate. And he who enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate. No one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered but shall go straight out. 10 When they go in, the prince shall go in among them; and when they go out, he shall go out.”
This leads us to the communion service and so therefore, could we have our ushers pass out the communion elements and let us take a few minutes to meditate upon the Lord and prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper.
Luke 22:14, “When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.”
Luke 22:15-16, “And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’”
Luke 22:17-18, “And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, ‘Take this and share it among yourselves for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.’”
Luke 22:19, “And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’”
Luke 22:20, “And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.’”